Training Them Old School

I have been mentored by teamsters who were more apt to work a horse into shape than to spend time with round pen exercises. My approach has become a bit of a hybrid. While I don’t use a round pen, I do work on yielding and obedience around the barn, and in the pasture, but I tend to just hitch’em up and get to work.

Harnessing is often by degrees, bit and bridle for a while, then collar bit an bridle, then harness and un-harness, exposure and measure the response, but all the while pushing the envelope. When it comes to training them to drive, I may take a couple of short walks up the woods road, then on the town road (cars, dogs, etc.), but generally I find the best challenges I have are related to the work I need to get done.

There are some tasks like harrowing, or dragging pastures that can be less intellectual and offer more open space, but if I want to get the garden plowed, or move some manure, that’s what we work on.

I expect my animals to stand to be harnessed, and hitched, un-hitched, or to wait while in harness, and often these are things that just improve with repetition.

I have been thinking a lot about this recently, not only because of Threads like this one, or Donn’s, but because the weather has been excellent for logging on a consistent basis for nearly six weeks, and I have been working my horses in the woods regularly. This team has been doing pretty well since I started working them together last spring, which is the first time I started working the nigh one at all. Over the last month I have seen marked and continual progress in each animal, and in their “team-ness”.

This is not to say that this level of competency couldn’t be achieved by other methods, or even possibly quicker, but with this recent team I can see clearly how I tend to take on this endeavor. This is also not to say that I haven’t taken a risk that to some may be unacceptable, and to them it should be.

I will not, and do not “fight” with a horse, but I find that in the working situation I respond better to the challenges that need to be addressed. In other words, I find that I can relate better to the animals needs,when I have them engaged in the work that I expect of them.

It is important to note though that I do have many years experience with that work, and with reading and relating to the working horse, so the risk that could turn into a disaster for some, is in fact the arena that I choose when evaluating and training. My “round pen” is 150 acres of rolling hills, woodlot, pasture, and gardens, with 365 different challenges and opportunities.

Carl

If you think you’re traiining a horse that way you are not. You are forcing the horse to comply.

That is the old way and I have seen a number of good horses whose minds were completely ruined by these old methods. Since you have no real driving trainer to compare them to you think this way is great!

NOT

If your friend doesn’t have the time to properly train them he should buy them already properly trained instead of breeding them and training them himself. Then you’d see the difference and the difference is HUGE.

I tried to post another reply, but it didn’t go through.
What I wanted to say was that we had limited time to get many of those horses broken and back to the sheep outfits. They were definitely roughed out and not finished teams. The remainder of their ‘training’ was on the job. What I do now is different and I take my time. More time sacking, more time ground driving, more time in the round pen.
To get a team finished really takes a lot of time. I don’t see them getting really broke in 30 days, just started good. And a good team is really made in a few seasons in my book. Whether it’s feeding cows all winter or in the hayfield or on a plow. It takes time
I disagree with the manesandtails. It all depends on how you go about it. If you’re a good enough hand and can read your horses, you won’t blow their minds. What I got out of plowboys post was that they train them on the job. It didn’t sound like any real ‘force’ to me. It sure can be done.

Hi all, I have been thinking a lot about my training methods. In coming to the methods I am using today to start a green horse I am thinking about there effectiveness on two groups that you might not expect. One is supposedly broke horses that don’t do exactly what we might wish in all situations and the other is green teamsters who are never quit sure how to get exactly what they want from the “broke” animals. I know this is an odd set of concerns for someone trying to start a perfectly good horse for their own use, but that is what I am doing.

Listen to the questions we get from Geoff, Highway, and others. I think even though their driving skills are still new, what folks lack to some extent is a sound relationship with the horses. The relationship I am talking about is one specifically suited to farm work. Training horses in some basic skills would insure that the horse and person recognize who is dominant, how we are dominant, and why we are dominant, before the driving starts. The teamster would learn what makes a horse move or stand; that when we are driving we are really leading. Physically we are behind the animals but mentally we must be in front. If my method of training can be applied to a “broke horse” by a green teamster I think it could achieve a lot of good. My goal is when someone wants to learn to drive and work with horses they should start to learn to train them at the same time. Not so they can train green horses but so they can establish a sound relationship with whatever horses they get.

We often hear the adage, every day you work with horses you are training them. My question is; who is training them? Some of my good friends are farming with horses and have told me they are to busy to learn to train horses, or inexperienced, better to let someone that knows what they are doing do the training. In the mean time they wonder why their horses do this, or that, or some other thing. I suggest they take the time to start learning some basic training skills. It will be time well spent.

Plowboy don’t get me wrong, I have seen some great horses started that way by caring teamsters that had the skill, experience, and confidence to know just what each colt was ready for. Sounds like fun.

I took some more pictures of Connie today, but the camera doesn’t connect to my computer. It will be a few days before I post them.

For what its worth; I think that perhaps ‘Manes’ did what I did… as a newbie, I read your postings, and I thought pretty much the same thing = that you hitched a pretty ‘raw’ horse up to an old timer & went at it… but having read your other postings {I’m referring to plowboy & J-L, here}, that didn’t seem consistant. So I reread the postings here, and I understood you better. I’d misunderstood what you’d said, or just read it in a different light & that made a lot of difference. If you look at the postings, they could be intrepreted either way. What had initially made me wonder if I was reading it right, was Carl’s comments about the “pre-work” he does (harnessing, leading them around, etc.) & I realized that you two just must not have mentioned that part. I’m not sure, but it seems that if someone was to take a horse that hadn’t the basics done, slapped a harness on it & hitched it & a trained horse together to a wagon, that things could get very interesting. More interesting than this newcomer would want to face. 😮

The books,videos,and clinics have there place for teaching, and most are offered by qualified people. The trouble is that a lot people use these and think that they will make them trainers. It takes years of hard work and sometimes a few wrecks to develop a training program that works for you. There as many different training methods as there are trainers. Some are good and well some are not. I’ve learned something from most every trainer I’ve watched , the trick is to keep an open mind. If it works for you thats all that counts.

Excuse me if I sound “pissy” but my frustration is showing:o

Listen to the questions we get from Geoff, Highway, and others. I think even though their driving skills are still new, what folks lack to some extent is a sound relationship with the horses. The relationship I am talking about is one specifically suited to farm work.

I appreciate your response and I can’t speak for other newer teamsters but for me THE underlying issue is the confidence that what I am doing is the right way to achieve the objective at hand – be it standing, dropping the head, yielding …. AND what to do when an undesirable behavior pops up during work. The answer often seems to be “that shouldn’t happen….” or “if he/she was properly trained in ground manners….” That’s all good and well but the question still remains “What now?”

In the mean time they wonder why their horses do this, or that, or some other thing. I suggest they take the time to start learning some basic training skills. It will be time well spent.

This is part of the problem – in trying to get some basic training information (what should I do when … happens), and I’m talking concrete answers, we often get nebulous vagueties that leave us at a loss for the next step to take.

Or there are so many conflicting and sometimes contradictory responses that you just …..aaargh.

To “cool my jets” I just read an article from http://www.kbrhorse.net/tra/mistake1.html
“PUTTING ERRORS INTO PERSPECTIVE”. I felt better:)

For many people this is difficult by region or by ability to make the right contacts. In some areas of the country there aren’t teamsters for hundreds of miles. In other parts there may be one a couple miles away that you aren’t aware of.

Plowboy,this hits the nail on the head. AND, I’d like to add just because someone near you has drafts and works them doesn’t mean they are someone you should emulate. “There’s a lot of competition among the knuckleheads.”

Lastly, Manesntails – before you come flying into a post w/ guns blazing, next time try using the same understanding on humans that you utilize on horses. Otherwise, you’re just Gyp training us.:mad: